THE INDIAN ELEPHANT 1127 



rage as he presented, mowing the bamboos down with trunk and tusks, and bearing 

 the thickest part over with his fore-feet. Suddenly his whole demeanor changed. 

 He backed from the clump and stood like a statue. Not a sound broke the sudden 

 stillness for an instant. His antagonist was silent, wherever he was. Now the tip 

 of his trunk came slowly round in our direction, and I saw that we were discovered 

 to his fine sense of smell. We had been standing silently behind a thin bamboo 

 clump, watching him, and when I first saw that he had winded us, I imagined he 

 might take himself off. But his frenzy quite overcame all fear for the moment; for- 

 ward went his ears and up went his tail, in a way which no one who has once seen the 

 signal in a wild elephant can mistake the significance of, and in the same instant he 

 wheeled round with astonishing quickness, getting at once into full speed, and bore 

 straight down upon us. The bamboos by which we were partly hidden were useless 

 as cover, and would have prevented a clear shot, so I stepped out into open ground 

 the instant the elephant commenced his charge. I gave a shout in the hope of stop- 

 ping him, which failed. I had my No. 4 double smoothbore loaded with ten 

 drams in hand. I fired when the elephant was about nine paces distant, aiming 

 into his curled trunk about one foot below the fatal bump between the eyes, as his 

 head was held very high, and this allowance had to be made for its elevation. I felt 

 confident of the shot, but made a grand mistake in not giving him both barrels; it 

 was useless to reserve the left as I did at such close quarters, and I deserved more 

 than what followed for doing so. The smoke from the ten drams obscured the ele- 

 phant, and I stooped quickly to see where he lay. Good heavens! he had not been 

 even checked, and was upon me! There was no time to step right or left. His 

 tusks came through the smoke (his head being now held low) like the cowcatchers 

 of a locomotive, and I had just time to fall flat to avoid being hurled along in front 

 of him. I fell a little to the right; the next instant down came his ponderous fore- 

 foot within a few inches of my left thigh, and I should have been trodden on had I 

 not been quick enough, when I saw the fore-foot coming, to draw my leg from the 

 sprawling position in which I fell. As the elephant rushed over me he shrieked 

 shrilly, which showed that his trunk was uncoiled; and his head also being held low 

 instead of in charging position, I inferred rightly that he was in full flight. Had 

 he stopped I should have been caught, but the heavy bullet had taken all the fighting 

 out of him. Jaffer had been disposed of by a recoiling bamboo, and was now lying 

 almost in the elephant's line; fortunately, however, the brute held on. I was covered 

 with blood from the wound inflicted by his late antagonist in his left side; even my 

 hair was matted together when the blood became dry. The mahout had jumped 

 into the deep and precipitous nalla to our left at the commencement of hostilities." 

 Since the elephant in India will not breed to any appreciable extent 

 in captivity, the stock has to be continually replenished by the capture 

 of wild individuals. The methods in vogue are, by driving into keddas, or inclo- 

 sures; by hunting with trained females; by means of pitfalls; and by noosing from 

 the backs of specially-trained tame animals. Of these, the first only is employed 

 for the capture of whole herds. 



A kedda party in Bengal comprises three hundred and seventy men, who go out 

 during the winter prepared for a sojourn of t\vo or three months in the jungle. 



